Peter Mercer-Taylor lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with his wife, Beth, and their three children. The Mercer-Taylor house is strewn with musical instruments, various combinations of which get regular use from all five of them (the most recent addition is a drum kit made of Tupperware, C-clamps, and duct tape). Peter’s own musical commitments, expressed both in his teaching and his scholarship, are divided between 19th-century European classical music, rock-era popular song, and hymnody. After six delightful years of teaching in Valparaiso University’s honors college—where his preponderantly Lutheran colleagues graciously made room for a high-church Episcopalian—Peter joined the musicology faculty at the University of Minnesota, where he has taught since 2001.
Audio Archive
Mercer-Taylor, Peter
Recordings
Making Christian Sense of Contemporary Popular Music – Part 1: "We Walk in the Sun": The Principles of Redemption in 'Seventies Arena' Rock
Presenter: Mercer-Taylor, Peter / 2005Making Christian Sense of Contemporary Popular Music – Part 2: "Above the Scarlet Tide": Faith & Doubt in Songs of Loss
Presenter: Mercer-Taylor, Peter / 2005Making Christian Sense of Contemporary Popular Music – Part 3: "A Slob Like Us": God as Novelty Song Subject
Presenter: Mercer-Taylor, Peter / 2005Making Christian Sense of Contemporary Popular Music – Part 4: "In A Locust Wind": Evaluating Pop's Biblical and Christian Imagery
Presenter: Mercer-Taylor, Peter / 2005Making Christian Sense of Contemporary Popular Music – Part 5: "I Sing in the Reaches": When Non-religious Songs do the Work of God
Presenter: Mercer-Taylor, Peter / 2005“We’ll Walk in the Sun”: The Notion of Redemption in Seventies Arena Rock
Presenter: Mercer-Taylor, Peter / 2009“How Long Must We Sing This Song?”: Faith, Pop Music, and the Unjust Death
Presenter: Mercer-Taylor, Peter / 2009Recent Additions
Vespers June 29, 1976 with Lois Erickson – Don’t Throw a Seed Away
Vespers June 27, 1976 with Carroll Hinderlie – Kings and Queens
Vespers June 26, 1976 with Beany Lundholm – Musical Vespers
Vespers June 25, 1976 with Carol Lund Hinderlie – Unless It Dies
Vespers June 22, 1976 with Evelyn Streng – Celebration of the Sun
Audio Archive Partner
Holden wishes to express appreciation to PLU, Pacific Lutheran University, for their support of the Holden Audio Archive Project.
July 1, 2025| there are 2316 presenters in the archive | there are 19690 recordings in the archive | welcome
